Review of YOU CAN’T TEACH THAT

Keep the politicians out of our college classrooms

Tl;dr – A highly persuasive book detailing the legal cases and arguments for why the government doesn’t and shouldn’t have the right to say what ideas can be discussed in the classroom. Short read, a great overview of what academic freedom is, the threats, and the argument for protecting it. Highly recommend.

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It’s no secret that our universities are the target of the Republican agenda. In K12, there has been a persistent attack on public schools for decades. And in the past few years, our universities have seen unprecedented government interference, starting with the 2022 Stop WOKE Act in Florida and continuing now as Trump coerces universities to align with is agenda to receive funding.

Some of the most pernicious efforts to control the university come in the form of banning particular ideas from classrooms, which is a current focus of much Republican-led state legislation as DEI is being removed from campuses and attempting to be removed from university classrooms. In You Can't Teach That!: The Battle over University Classrooms, Keith Whittington explains the fragile barrier between free thought and political control.

What is taught in the college classroom is protected by academic freedom – the ability to teach without interference. The idea is that professors, hired for their expertise, can teach their classes how they see fit. Essentially, professors should have speech protections in the classroom and not be fired if and when their views are contrary to students, the public, or politicians.

The problem is, however, that it’s not necessarily a legal protection. Although past Supreme Court cases have drawn connections between the First Amendment and academic freedom, it’s not a secure legal reality. And at our public universities, some case law argues (as have Florida lawmakers for example) that professors are public employees and should speak in alignment with the state government.

Whittington, however, disagrees and makes a strong case that professors and the classroom are exceptions precisely because professors are hired based on their expertise to teach. And since the purpose of our universities is to generate knowledge in a free society, freedom of thought in the classroom is necessary for this purpose.

You Can’t Teach That is a clear, informative, and persuasive book on why politicians should be kept out of the college classroom. As someone who had always taken such a position as fact, it was enormously informative for me to have read this book and become familiar with the legal arguments underpinning why politicians shouldn’t dictate the permissible ideas in the classroom.

If you’re at all concerned about government interference in our nation’s universities, you should read this book. If you think that politicians should have the right to dictate what ideas can or can’t be taught in the classroom, you should also read this book. It’s quite short at on 160 pages in a small page size, so you can get through relatively quickly. Highly recommend for anyone interested in the political battle over our universities.

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Reader Poll

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Published: May 2024

Publisher: Polity

Format: Paperback

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If you think this sounds interesting, bookmark these other great reads:

• After the Ivory Tower Falls: How College Broke the American Dream and Blew Up Our Politics―and How to Fix It (2022) by Will Bunch | Read my review

• A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door: The Dismantling of Public Education and the Future of School (2020) by Jack Schneider and Jennifer Berkshire

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